©Marian Wood Kolisch
　 This is the article of Ursula Le Guin's email interview by FEMIN. The question Chieko Akaishi who is the writer and editor of FEMIN send to MS.Le Guin and her answers.

　Q.I heard that you were an avid reader of the books and an explorer of a library as a child. What kind of career did you wanted to pursue in the future then as such a girl? If you wanted to be a writer, could you tell me why did you choose to write fantasies among various genres?

UKL: I intended to be a writer, as long as I can remember. I knew nothing about genres as a child, and cannot say that I chose to write fantasy; I followed my imagination wherever it took me. My fiction is not all fantasy by any means. The first stories and novel I wrote that were worth publishing are realistic and historical - the only "unreal" thing about them is that I made up the Central European country, Orsinia, where they happen; but there is nothing fantastic about it. I also wrote stories about contemporary America. But I could not publish any of my fiction for many years, only poetry.
Finally the science fiction and fantasy magazines began to publish my work, so I found my first audience. Then, as my name became known, I could publish other kinds of fiction as well, such as the Orsinian tales, the stories about Oregon in Searoad, and so on.

Q,In The Language of the Night, you mentioned that you 'discovered' the world of Earthsea. What would you like to tell by this word 'discover'? How is it different from the word 'create'? As if you were a cultural anthropologist who writes notes in notebooks, would you describe grasses,trees, animals, islands, wizards, dragons, and lives of people residing in these isles in the world of Earthsea. If it is possible, could you tell me a portion of the secrets of 'discovering' Earthsea?

UKL: Of course I created Earthsea, but that word sounds so much like God -deliberate and intentional and all-powerful and all-knowing! I do not feel like any kind of god when I write. I feel like an explorer. As I said, I follow my imagination. It goes to strange places, and my mind follows it, and tries to understand, to see, to make notes - yes, just like a geologist or botanist or anthropologist. So it seems a process of discovery. But I don't know any secrets!

Q.You mentioned that you spent a long time with the old Indian uncles and learned cultural relativism naturally through the experiences with them, in The Wave in the Mind. The description of Ged seems to resemble the intellectual,and dark Indian uncles who do not say so much. Would you think of him when you were writing about Ged?

UKL: I like your question. I did not consciously think about my "indian uncles," Juan Dolores and Robert Spott, when I was writing about Ged: but I think you are right - they are in him. Perhaps I would not have known him if I had not known them.

Q.The novels set in Earthsea have given their readers advices on how to live a life. For example, at the end of the first book of Earthsea A Wizard of Earthsea,Ged called his shadow as Ged his true name, and the shadow saying the same word, and then fused into one being. This scene gave the readers deep impression which tells that to deal with a problem we encounter in a life is, in fact, to face our internal problem. In addition, magic in Earthsea reminds me the theme that heavy responsibility accompanies strong power. I have thought of Ged whenever I face an obstacle in my own life. In The Language of The Night, you described A Wizard of Earthsea as a story of maturation. What would you like to tell to the readers through the story?

UKL. I'm sorry, I cannot answer this question, because the whole book is the answer to the question. To say what it"means", or what I want to "tell" the reader, is only to diminish what it says. I said it the only way I could say it. The whole story is the meaning.

Q.The stories of Earthsea seemed to end once in The Farthest Shore. However, the stories of Earthsea started to move again in Tehanu, which is my favorite book.
What motivated you to write the story of Earthsea again?

UKL. I knew that there was to be a fourth book, in which we would find out what happened to Tenar - but it took me 17 years to learn how to write it!

I had to learn how to write as a woman, without putting men at the center of the story. The feminist movement of the sixties and seventies was a huge help to me. I could not have gone on writing without it.
After I had learned enough, I could come back to Earthsea, and without changing anything in it, I could see it entirely differently, because I was looking at it from a different point of view - not from the place of power, now, but from below, from the position of an "ordinary" woman and a little girl who has been terribly hurt - from the positon of the powerless. From there, everything looks different!

Q.I feel vitality from Tenar who appear as an ordinary middle-aged woman. We know a lot of women like Tenar. In reality, they have been an essential part of societies around the world. Also, in the novel, there is a story of Ged who had lost the power of magic as an Archmage and lived with Tenar. I interpreted their relationship as a model for that of women and men after their middle-age. What kind of impression would you like to give from their relationship?

UKL: I was very happy to be able to give Tenar, whose marriage had not been very happy, and Ged, who had never had any sexual life at all, a joyful and powerful relationship of love. My secret name for the book while I was writing it was, "Better Late than Never"!

Q. Tehanu, who had been burnt and abused as a child, was raised and healed by Tenar, who herself had been once "the eaten one" as a child. I feel a hope in the process of her recovery from the experience of an abuse. Would you try to convey this kind of impression? There is another story about Tehanu in The Other Wind. She was summoned by King Lebannen who wants to resolve problems with dragons, and met the ancient dragon Kalessin. She seems to exemplify a hope and another way of maturation different from that of Ged. Could you tell me how the character Tehanu was born.

UKL. When I began to feel ready to write the book, to discover what had happened to Tenar (who did not practice magic) and what was going to happen to Ged (who had lost his power of magic), I could not find my way into the story - until suddenly I saw the child, the cruelly abused little girl. She was the key to the door. She was the one I
must follow. She hardly said a word, but in her was the mystery.
The other kind of magic, that the dragons know.

Q.In The Other Wind, the magical world of Earthsea began to change. Up to that time, there had been the clear distinction between life and death and the orders of wizardry centered on Roke island, of the world of men and women, and of the relationship between humans and dragons. However, the orders underwent reorganization. In the similar vein, Tales from Earthsea contains stories on the establishment of school of Roke, on the wizard of woman, and on the relationship between humans and dragons.
From these two books I feel prospects of the real world. Could you tell me what you intend to express through these kinds of stories?

UKL. The British publisher insisted on printing the novel The Other Wind before the fifth book of Earthsea, the volume of, Tales from Earthsea. This reversal of the proper order has caused much unnecessary confusion. The last story in the Tales, "Dragonfly," is very clearly the link between the fourth book (Tehanu) and the sixth (The Other Wind.)

The Tales express my exploration of aspects of Earthsea that I had not myself understood clearly in the earlier books. Writing them led me to The Other Wind, in which I finally understood what was amiss, what had gone wrong, with the wizardry of Roke, and began to understand who and what the dragons are.

Q. When you were writing your first novels, I imagine, you were raising your children. Given that it is much harder for women with her children to work than men not taking care of their children, I wonder how you managed to have a time in which you could concentrate on writing such a great novels. Were you writing late in the night after your children went to bed? What did it seem like to write in such a difficult situation?

UKL. Yes, I wrote at night, and yes, it was not easy! But I was young - and I had the good husband I still have, who never made it more difficult for me to write, and always took his responsibility for the children. It is almost impossibly difficult for a woman to have entire responsibility both to her art and to her young children; but if she has a partner who shares the responsibility for the children, then it is possible. And it should be possible! Women should never have to give up having children for their art, or give up their art to have children. Either of those choices means sterility -- a great impoverishment - a lessening of power and understanding. (Most men don't even understand that. That is their loss!)

Q.Regarding the management of your time, would you have a special time other than the time writing a novel?

UKL: I'm not sure I understand your question; do you mean do I enjoy spending time on anything as much as I enjoy writing? Well, to be writing on a story that is going well is probably the greatest joy I know, but there are many other joys. To sit in the sun in the garden . . . to be in the desert of Oregon, under the stars. . . to find a great novel or poem I have not read, or reread one I love . . . to see and talk with my children . . . to feel my cat jump up on the bed at night and settle down and purr. . .

Q. I heard from Ms. Masako Shimizu that you are preparing a new novel. May I know some information on the new work, if possible? Because you mentioned that to write a novel is to wait for a rhythm with which you can proceed in writing, I wish this question would not disturb your rhythm.

UKL: I would like to tell you about the novel I am trying to write, but I am superstitious, I am afraid if I talk about it it will turn into a bat and fly away and never come back. I have never been able to talk about my writing until it is written. I am sorry!

Thank you for your questions, they have been most amiable and interesting.

With all good wishes,

Ursula